Mercado Merced, Málaga

Photography courtesy of The Guardian

Isn’t it great when someone comes up with a concept and nails it in every conceivable way? On a tapas trawl of the oft-overlooked city of Málaga (go – just go! It’s wonderful, exciting, friendly, vibrant, beautiful, packed full of history and culture, and has some great places to eat), we stumbled across Mercado Merced, one of the city’s food markets that’s been taken over by stalls selling every imaginable strand of Andalusian fodder you can imagine. A croqueteria sells the deep-fried pillows of deliciousness in every flavour combination you could ever desire. Another stall sells slivers of perfectly-sliced, fat-jewelled jámon. From another, grab a portion of excellent tortilla. Wash it down with a sherry or locally-barrelled wine. There’s even a stall dedicated to the Russian salad – a mayo-heavy salad dotted with carrot, peas, occasionally capers, potatoes and cornichons. The Spanish love it. There’s cheese, there’s beer, there’s freshly grilled sardines.

Why we love it:

We spent the entire evening, trotting from stall to another, filling our bellies with local food – some traditionally made, other dishes having been given a tasty modern twist. It’s a must-visit in must-visit Málaga.

Stand-out dish:

We unashamedly love anything deep-fried, so the stall we visited most often (three visits in one sitting!) was La Croqueteria. A hot creamy filling, best when pumped full of jamón, these were excellent.